It is known that when messages are transmitted in electronic mail systems, the messages intended for a single addressee and for many addressees are processed in a single flow and are presented to a user during the processing of catalogues of sent messages in the form of a homogeneous row.
It is also known that in the process of sending messages for many addressees, a message in a manner concealed from the user is converted by multiple duplication of the initial message for corresponding addresses in accordance with which a particular message should be sent. The obtained copies of the initial message are sent to concrete addresses. Wherein only the entry corresponding to the initial message for many addressees is maintained in the catalogue of initial messages, while the unique characteristics of the messages obtained by conversion of the initial message are lost (see J. B. Postel. Simple mail transfer protocol. August 1982, Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, RFC 821).
A drawback of this method of transmitting and processing group messages is that it is not possible to obtain ready information on the current state of each message which has been sent to one of the addressees among the many indicated in the catalogue of initial messages, for example, that this message has been delivered to a concrete addressee, has been examined by the addressee, etc. The automatic processing of messages according to features relating to messages delivered to concrete addressees, for example, carrying out selection, assortment, etc., is not possible.
The situation is made even worse when there is a large number of addressees which are simultaneously used in one list of addresses, and also in the case of using addresses belonging to different types of mail, for example, such as electronic mail, facsimile communication, for which the transmission of messages is carried out over independent communication channels having very different time characteristics.
The object of the invention is to create a method of transmitting and processing group messages in an electronic mail system, which method overcomes the drawbacks of the aforesaid known methods and ensures enhancement of the efficiency of processing messages intended for many addressees by optimizing the structure of the messages being formed, which makes it possible to substantially reduce losses in the information being sent and to simplify the processing thereof.
This object is achieved in a method of transmitting and processing group messages in an electronic mail system, the method comprising the steps of forming an initial electronic mail message, converting it to ensure transmission to a group of addressees, transmitting the converted initial message to the group of addressees, receiving the transmitted message by addressees of the group of addressees, forming messages confirming reception and transmitting them to a sender, receiving messages confirming the reception and processing them for subsequent use by the sender, in that in accordance with the invention conversion of the initial message is carried out by forming for each initial message a set of subsidiary messages respectively for each addressee of the group of addressees, wherein each of the subsidiary messages of the initial message includes an information field, which is identical for all the subsidiary messages and forms the body of the message, and a distinguishing service field of an identifier of a corresponding subsidiary message, at least a two-level catalogue of initial messages is formed in which the lines of record of the formed subsidiary messages of subsequent levels match up with the line of record of the initial message of the first level, and during reception of the reception confirmation messages, the received messages match up with the lines of record of all levels of the catalogue of initial messages.
Wherein, during the formation of the subsidiary messages, it is preferable that an additional service field be formed in each of them, the service field comprising a feature of the possibility of automatically processing confirmation of delivery, and during reception of the transmitted subsidiary messages by addressees of the group of addressees, the aforesaid service field is derived and a message confirming reception is formed in the form of a status message in which the service field of the identifier of the delivered subsidiary message is introduced, and a service field for identification of this message as confirmation of delivery and a service field comprising data on the current state of the delivered subsidiary message are additionally formed.
Furthermore, during reception of the status message, it is preferable that an identifier of the message be derived from the message, that it be compared with identifiers of subsidiary messages recorded on corresponding levels of the catalogue of initial messages, and if there is detection of coincidence, data on the current state of a sent subsidiary message are derived from the received status message and recorded in the line of record on a corresponding level of the catalogue of initial messages.
It is also preferable that after reception of status messages for all of the sent subsidiary messages, data of the final state of delivery of the initial message are formed from the data derived from service fields of the current state of sent subsidiary messages, and the former data are recorded in the line of record on the first level of the corresponding initial message.
Furthermore, during the forming of the catalogue of initial messages it is preferable that lines of record of subsidiary messages of the second level, ordered according to addresses of those messages contained in the list of addresses of the initial message, be matched up with the line of record of the initial message of the first level.
And it is also preferable during the forming of the catalogue of initial messages that lines of record of a third level, ordered according to types of mail which are selected for transmitting a subsidiary message with a concrete address, be matched up with a line of record of each of the subsidiary messages of the second level which are ordered by addresses.
The term "message" which is mentioned in the application materials is meant to mean a combination of user information (content) and service information (address and other attributes), having material embodiment in the form of an entry by means of storage means (disk units, memory cells), and electrical signals as means for moving the messages in communication lines, network devices.
Wherewith, transmission of a message is meant to mean the physical movement of a message from one subscriber device to another such device, which movement is related, as a rule, to a change in the material representation of the message.